Topic: Why did Steve Smith get fired? (Read 4122 times)

Sorry. I know this is old news for most of you guys but how and why did Journey get rid of Steve Smith? Was he to much for their brand of music or was it disagreements with members or management? I did some searchs here on Steve and Journey but wanst able to come up with anything. It could have been over playing or something to that affect but "Escape" sounds pretty controlled. My guess is that he was/is into fusion and maybe the style his style wasnt what they were looking for. Fill me in.

RelientKngOdrums

I don't really have any insider info but I "heard" he quit because he didn't like what the band had become.

absolutely not.... haha, he wouldn't quit... he was making tons of $$$$$$... and he loved it.. me and my drum tutor have talk about this a lot.... basically... JOURNEY simply wanted to have a drummer that wasn't the center of attention... steve played in a way that captured everyone's attention... and i think they felt like it was becoming his own band... as a huge fan of Steve, it's Journey's loss... and i can't wait for another VITAL INFORMATION cd... love 'em all!

RelientKngOdrums

although no one likes to be fired of course... i think steve is very happy where he is now with VITAL INFORMATION and all his other gigs.... Steve's definitely extremely lucky that he has enogh money to live pretty much, and is free to do things like Vital and not worry about expenses.... Steve will be the first one to will say he makes close to nothing on the Vital Information gigs, it's simply his passion, as it is for most to all people on this site!

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sidereal

Steve Perry (singer) fired him. It was a big ego thing. SP was gaining more and more control of the band and told SS that his time was off. Keep in mind that SP is a drummer too, although obviously there's no comparison.

The sad thing is that the incident really screwed SS up. He was shocked and I believe he went into some therapy (correct me if I'm wrong about that). I'm pretty sure he began taking lessons again though.

It goes to show that we all face criticism in our careers. Even phenomenal talents like Steve Smith are not immune to times when confidence is shaken.

Seems he recovered though. His drumming skills got much better after he left Journey.

Sidereal is completely correct. This was also explained on the VH1 Journey Behind The Music.

Steve Perry stated after the fact that it was a bad decision and he wouldn't do it if he had a chance to do it over again. He fired the bass player and the drummer for selfish reasons.

I always thought that Smith layed back quite a bit with Journey, playing for the song as he felt it. He may also have been told what to play but I don't know that. I don't think he ever became a focal point of the band but I might be wrong.

It is interesting how he "layed" back yet his talent and skill were still very apparent.

This was another example of a no-win situation, where certain personalities made it impossible to please everybody. It's really not very different from what Reuben encountered in THIS THREAD, only the income brackets and chops levels were different.

That VH1 show on Journey is very illuminating - you watch as Steve Perry completely takes over the band, and then later has the gall to say he "never really felt like a real member of the band." Unfortunately, THAT is the kind of utterly insane crap you can expect to encounter in bands, from the bars to the arena circuit - it never changes.

Meanwhile, Steve Smith played AMAZINGLY for the songs, and helped redefine the drum sounds of that era. His drum parts were innovative, solid, and tasteful. He became THE guy to call for power ballads - Bryan Adams was the first to use him on a session for one of his early hits (Heaven, I think), because Steve was the king of that style of drumming. And yet that wasn't good enough for Journey. Go figure.

You should also try to track down the Mike Baird interview in MD - he's the first guy Journey hired to replace Steve. Their audition process was absolutely maddening, and he goes into gory detail about what idiots they were being.

Sometimes some great music comes out of some major personality clashes - that's why you hear of bandmembers traveling on separate buses. Look at Sting and Copeland, The Who, etc. Pretty weird. Watch some of those "making of XXX album" videos, like the one where Aerosmith's Steven Tyler is driving poor Joey Kramer (one of my fave rock drummers) absolutely nuts - it's amazing that such great music comes from people who get along so poorly.

I still love Journey's music, but based on everything I've heard about them, they're the last people I'd invite to my house for dinner.

And whenever I start to get into woe-is-me mode, thinking I'm the only guy getting treated unfairly by the music biz, I look at what happened to Steve, whom I consider probably one of the five or so greatest drummers on the planet. If HE can get fired, I know nobody is immune to the music business's propensity for screwing artists without even kissing them first.

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